Such a sealing gasket comprises in particular at least two portions: a rigid or semi-rigid first portion for fixing on a support; and a flexible and deformable second portion for providing sealing. At present, the sealing gaskets which are used to provide sealing between the body and the doors of a motor vehicle, for example, are positioned either on the body or else on the doors themselves. When the gaskets are positioned on vehicle doors, they are held in place by clips that are secured to the fixing portion of the gasket by means of a fixing rail mounted on the door, or by an adhesive secured to the fixing portion of the gasket, it being understood that adhesive provides the best compromise between cost, weight, and performance.
The second portion of such a gasket that provides the sealing may be tubular in shape, thus making it very tolerant in terms of door-closure energy, but not very strong in the corners of the door. To mitigate that drawback, door gaskets are generally subjected to a thermoforming operation so as to limit the extent to which they collapse in door corners of small radius of curvature.
In general, adhesive gaskets on a door are mounted on their supports by hand or by automatic systems of the static type. Such gaskets are generally delivered in looped form and are also subjected to a thermoforming operation prior to being mounted on doors. The thermoforming operation serves to compensate for gasket collapse in door corners that present a small radius of curvature.
At present, technology makes it possible to envisage putting such gaskets into place by means of robotic systems of the dynamic type. Under such circumstances, it is preferable for the gasket not to be looped in a ring, so that it can be guided continuously by the gasket-laying head of the robotic system.
Under such conditions, it is desirable to envisage supplying such gaskets in long lengths, with the gaskets being, for example, initially stored on a drum, on a pallet, or in a container.
Supplying gaskets in this way presents numerous advantages, and particular mention can be made of the following:                reducing the cycle time required to put the gasket into place;        eliminating human intervention for loading a gasket on each cycle;        considerably reducing the number of packages since a single drum can replace tens of cardboard boxes containing looped gaskets;        reducing waste and pollution;        reducing the number of references, since at present gaskets are specific to each type of door; and        eliminating the operation of bonding a handling tongue placed on the adhesive for each gasket, if the gasket is of the type using adhesive.        
In spite of the above advantages, such a solution still leaves in suspension the problem of the localized thermoforming operations performed on such gaskets at door corners of small radius of curvature, it being understood that the gaskets are wound onto drums carrying long lengths of gasket.